December 2006
Jim Scheef, Moderator
Lisa Leifels, Reporter

We welcome questions from the floor at the start of our General Meetings. In addition, members who are not able to attend the General Meeting may submit questions to askdacs@dacs.org. We will ask the question for you and post the reply in DACS.ORG. Please provide as much information as possible since we can’t probe during the session.

Q. I was reseating the cables to the DVD drive and I think I broke my PC. I hear the power go on, but no beeps and the computer won’t boot up.
A. No beeps could mean several problems. There is either no power to the computer or the mother-board; a card may be seated improperly; or a cable is plugged in improperly, it may be back-wards. Whenever opening your computer, make sure you shut down your system, unplug your computer and all of its components and ground yourself by touching a metal object outside the case to discharge any static electricity. Make sure that the system cable from the power supply cable is inserted correctly into the motherboard. Check that all cables including the ribbon cables are inserted properly into the motherboard. It may be helpful to detach and reinsert each cable one at a time.

Q. I am running 98 SE and lately the cursor freezes up when the computer is on a lot. I am able to use the keyboard to close out of applications.
A. If the keyboard is working then the machine is not completely locked up, you may have a cracked wire in your mouse, try using a different mouse.

Q. I would like to get an inexpensive Mac that runs both the OS 9 and OS X operating systems primarily to use for website testing, what is the minimum model I should look for?
A. The iMac model was recommended by the audience. There is a website called LowEndMac.com which provides useful information on the four different iMac designs. It also describes the features of two other low cost models, the eMac and the Mac mini.

Q. I have some old program icons that I am having trouble deleting?
A. Download and install the Microsoft Powertoy called Tweak UI, which gives you access to some of the system settings that are not available in the default user interface. Powertoys are additional programs created by developers after a product has been released. It should be noted that they are not part of Windows are not supported by Microsoft.

Submit any question to: askdacs@dacs.org.